What does flutter feel like?

I've had afib episodes since 2011 and convert with PIP metoprolol 12.5 mg and flecainide 100 mg. My episodes are always obvious to me -- I check my pulse/ox gadget, have to pee, etc. I have about 2-3 episodes a month and convert within 2 hours.

My cardiologist wanted me to wear a Preventice monitor for 30 days to make sure I wasn't in afib more than I was aware. He's afraid I'll get a stroke, because I don't want to take a blood thinner (but I take nattokinase 100 mg daily).

I have to wear the monitor for one more week. Had no afib for the first 2 weeks, then an episode. Then the night after that, Preventice left a message for me at 5 am July 4th (I was asleep with my phone on mute), asking if I was OK, and did I notice anything. No, I was asleep at 5 am. But today my cardiologist's nurse called to follow up and said Preventice notified them that I had been in flutter and that there was a long pause before I converted to NSR.

I realize now that I don't really know what flutter is. I get what I call short "runs" of multiple rapid beats that last for several seconds. As for pauses, I definitely get that when I come out of afib - blackout-duty pauses - but I've never passed out from it.

Now this is making me worried because my heart is fluttering and pausing while I'm asleep and who knows whether I'll wake up?

Thanks

Flutter usually feels like a rapid but regular heartbeat. It can also be slow, but it will always be a regular rhythm, unlike AF, which is always irregular.

What is flutter? Flutter is a self-perpetuating signal going around in a circle in one of your atria.

Flutter tends to be resistant to rate control and antiarrhythmic drugs. Unlike AF, it tends to be a stable rhythm that can continue for days or even weeks.

All that said, rest assured you'll wake up. It's not dangerous and pretty much everything you know about AF applies to flutter as well.

I've had flutter and, as Carey said, it's regular.
From my experience, I'd add that flutter don't give beats different in strength from each other, contrary to afib, where you'd feel tronger beats here and there.
When afib and flutter are intricated, as I've had experienced, flutter is hard to discern without an EKG recording.

For me it was like the cruise control was stuck at 150, or 130, or maybe 120. Until it wasn't, and I'd convert back to, take your pick -afib or nsr. Usually the former.

I think Carey's cruise was set a tad higher at times

Yeah. I think Carey once got 1:1 flutter.
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I once had half a dozen hours for sure with flutter around 125bpm. It was a strange sensation, beats were discrete in strength. Sinus tach should give stronger beats (I'm guessing).

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Pompon
Yeah. I think Carey once got 1:1 flutter.
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Once? I wish! It was dozens and dozens of times over a period of two years. There was a time I was in the ER getting cardioverted 2-3 times per week until I discovered that I could chemically cardiovert myself using high doses of potassium and a potassium meter. All information I found here in the library.

My AFIB career started July 2006 or at least thats when I found I had it after a regular Hospital check up in Bangkok. Everything went down hill very quickly from then on with what I found out later to be Atrial Flutter starting up first and then converting to AFIB within an hour or so. I could not sense the AFL but could feel the AFIB very easily. What I could feel with the AFL was a dramatic lack of energy when walking up stairs or similar which was my 'Q' to head off to the local clinic by which time I would be in AFIB. Moving on 13 years and with 3 ablations for AFIB/AFL and 2 ablations for Left Atrial Flutter (LAFL) 2007 to 2010 behind me I over exercised in the gym last July 2019 and bang straight into Flutter. I again could not sense anything mechanically wrong other than a sudden lack of energy and that strange feeling that 'something' is wrong. Unfortunately for me the AFL or LAFL - Cardio cannot tell which variety without 'going inside' - never stopped, however I was grateful that the AFl/LAFL was very regular at 80BPM when sat at the computer etc. Any walking at all and the heartrate would shoot up to 120ish BPM which was tiring but again no actual feeling of rapid heartrate. The good news is, touch wood, is that I was cardio converted early August 2019 and now coming up to one year arrythmia free in the next few weeks. Hope there for anyone who may be frightened of a cardio-version, its a walk in the park.

Cheers,
Barry G.